06 February 2015 - There is renewed interest in the Philippines among the Singaporean business community. A recent testament to this reinvigorated business relations is the Trade and Investment Promotion Mission to Singapore organized by the Philippines-Singapore Business Council (PSBC) held from February 03 to 04.
The Trade Mission brought together high-level government officials and some of the biggest names in Philippine business and industry to meet with potential investors and business partners from Singapore. The Makati Business Club and the Singapore Business Federation served as the Secretariat of the PSBC for the Philippine and Singapore side, respectively.
Established in 1994, the PSBC is co-chaired on the Philippine side by Investment & Capital Corporation of the Philippines (ICCP) Group chairman and CEO Guillermo D. Luchangco, and on the Singaporean side by Keppel Corporation CEO Loh Chin Hua.
The Philippine Government delegation consisted of high-level officials, namely, Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio L. Singson, Transportation and Communication Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya, and Undersecretary and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center Executive Director Cosette V. Canilao.
The Philippine business delegation was co-headed by PSBC chair Guillermo Luchangco and PSBC Vice-Chair Fernando Zobel de Ayala.
The Philippine business delegation was composed of some of the captains of Philippine business and industry, foremost of whom is Mr. Fernando Zobel de Ayala of the Ayala Corporation.
The business matching interests of the mission were varied and included: 1) power and transport infrastructure; 2) banking and finance; 3) logistics supply; 4) renewable energy; 5) property and real estate development, malls, hotels and resorts; 6) green building design and technologies; 7) infrastructure and construction; 8) mining; 9) business development and joint ventures 10) social media marketing and digital marketing; and 11) IT consulting and software development.
The program for the first day included a dialogue among the officers and members of the PSBC in which they reviewed the bilateral trade relations between the Philippines and Singapore and discussed, among others, the status of the relations as well as the Council’s program of activities for the year 2015.
The next day, the business forum dubbed “Philippines: An Economic Reawakening” was held at the Shangri-La Hotel. The Philippine Embassy in Singapore was represented by Ambassador Antonio A. Morales, Commercial Counsellor Glenn Penaranda and the Head of the Embassy’s Economic Section Edna May Grecia-Lazaro.
From the Singaporean side, no less than Minister Lim Hng Kiang of the Ministry of Trade and Industry delivered the keynote address for the business forum.
Secretary Singson and Secretary Abaya delivered presentations on investment opportunities in infrastructure and transportation, respectively, while Undersecretary Canilao presented the various Public-Private Partnership projects on the pipeline that are open for competitive bidding to foreign companies.
The high level of representation on both sides is an indication of the strengthened economic relations between the two countries.
From the business side, Mr. Cirilo Noel of SGV & Co gave an overview of the business and investment climate in the Philippines. In his presentation, Mr. Noel highlighted the bright spots in the business sector, such as infrastructure, manufacturing, tourism, retail, BPO/offshoring and banking.
The forum was co-organized by the Singapore Business Federation and the MBC with support from the Department of Trade and Industry and IE Singapore and with sponsorship from Keppel Corporation.
An important feature of the forum was the business-matching and networking session held towards the end of the program in which close to a hundred representatives from the business sector in Singapore participated. END